Ik zeg het nog maar eens:
TRUMP’S FOUR HURDLES1. Holding OnFirst, Trump has to keep all the “solid-red” states that have been Republican for decades. If Trump cannot hold on to these states, then his chances of winning the election are all but over.
That is far from assured, given Trump’s dip in the polls amid his controversial statements.
The three states to watch are Georgia (16 electoral votes), Arizona (11), and Utah (6). They should not have been of any concern for a Republican candidate, with sizable victories for Mitt Romney in all three in 2012.
Despite a wobble this summer, Georgia is not yet in danger of tipping. But Arizona — whose long-time Senator and former Presidential candidate, John McCain, has been subjected to a barrage of insults by Trump since the spring — is now close to a 50-50 call. And Utah has been thrown into the ring by the surging candidacy of the independent Evan McMullin, a conservative Mormon and former CIA officer antagonized by Trump’s actions and statements.
That’s not all. Unexpectedly, Alaska — deep-red since statehood in 1959, except for the 1964 landslide of Democrat Lyndon Johnson — is now in the balance. It only has three electoral votes, but each one now matters to Trump.
2. The 1st Swing StatesTrump’s next task is to grab the states that have been closest to toss-up status since the party conventions. In a major setback, he appears to have no chance in Virginia (13). However, during his September surge in the polls, he took the lead in both Iowa (6) and North Carolina (15).
No more. Trump’s poor performances in the 1st and 2nd debates and the media spotlight on his behavior, especially towards women, have turned the polls around in both states.
Both are far from lost — Clinton is only narrowly ahead in Iowa, and is about a 2-1 favorite in North Carolina — but Trump has to make another push just to get past the second of his four barriers.
3. The Big Swing StatesFlorida (29) and Ohio (18) have long been the barometer of US Presidential politics. Over the past 10 elections, Ohio has voted for the winning party every time; Florida voted against the winning candidate only once.
In 2000, it was Florida’s disputed vote, with its confusing ballot and “hanging chads”, that ultimately gave the White House to George W. Bush. In 2004, Ohio made the difference in keeping Bush in power. But in 2008 and 2012, Barack Obama won both states, albeit by narrow margins.
Before the 1st Presidential debate, amid the now-faded concern over Clinton’s health and Trump’s dominance of headlines and the airwaves, Democrats had good cause to be worried.
But both states have steadily moved back towards Clinton as Trump has struggled with the allegations over his tax records and sexual advances on women. Ohio is now about a 58% chance for a Clinton win and Florida has risen to close to 70%, according to FiveThirtyEight.com, the most authoritative site on the state of the campaign.
4. The Tipping PointsEven after clearing all of these obstacles, Trump still will not have reached 270 electoral votes, and it is at this point that he meets his greatest challenge. He has to peel off at least two states in which Clinton has been favored throughout the campaign.
In Nevada (6), Trump snuck ahead in the polls just after the Republican National Convention and again in mid-September. In New Hampshire (4), he led in the polls for an even briefer period after the convention, and he has been behind ever since. And in Colorado (9), he has been behind from the get-go.
All three are currently behind his reach. New Hampshire has a lot of free-market Republicans, but Trump’s uncertain position with the GOP establishment and his failure to win independents appear costly — Clinton is now an 85% favorite.
The numbers are similar in Colorado, a bellwether state with its cross-section from conservative Republicans to Denver’s metropolitan Democrats. And Nevada, like Utah, seems to have been lost by Trump’s erratic behavior: a toss-up has turned into a 70% chance for Clinton success.
http://eaworldview.com/20(...)esidential-election/quote:
To defeat Hillary Clinton, Trump must ensure he wins these six states — Utah, Arizona, Iowa, North Carolina, Ohio, and Florida — and also take two of three from Nevada, New Hampshire, and Colorado.
Spannend

Vooral de laatste alinea..dat geeft het pad dat Trump zoekt voor de winst...